Oslo: Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday.

Warming is still on track, however, to breach a goal set by governments around the world of limiting the increase in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius 3.6 Fahrenheit above preindustrial times, unless tough action is taken to limit rising greenhouse gas michael kors online outlet stores emissions.

The most extreme rates of warming simulated by the current generation of climate models over 50 to 100year timescales are looking less likely, the University of Oxford wrote about the findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The rate of global warming has slowed after strong rises in the 1980s and 1990s, even though all the 10 warmest years since reliable records began in the 1850s have been since 1998.

The slowdown has been a puzzle because emissions of heattrapping greenhouse gases have continued to rise, led by strong industrial growth in China.

Examining recent temperatures, the experts said that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere above preindustrial times possible by midcentury on current trends would push up temperatures by between 0.9 and 2.0 degrees Celsius 1.6 and 3.6F.

Findings in the new study, by experts in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland and Norway, broadly matched that range for the longterm response.

The oceans appear to be taking up more heat in recent years, masking a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that passed 400 parts per million this month for the first time in human history, up 40 percent from preindustrial levels.

But we are still looking at warming well over the two degree goal that countries have agreed upon if current emission trends continue, he said.

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Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 Celsius 1.4F since the Industrial Revolution and two degrees C is widely viewed as a threshold to dangerous changes such as more floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

The oceans are sequestering heat more rapidly than expected over the last decade, said Professor Steven Sherwood of the U michael kors online outlet stores niversity of New South Wales in Australia, who was not involved in the study.

By assuming that this behaviour will continue, the scientists calculate that the climate will warm about 20 percent more slowly than previously expected, although over the long term it may be just as bad, since eventually the ocean will stop taking up heat. michael kors online outlet stores